The 500 - #354 - 52 Street - Billy Joel

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 354

Album Title: 52 Street

Artist: Billy Joel

Genre: Pop, Jazz Rock

Recorded: A&R Studios on 52 Street, NYC

Released: October, 1978

My age at release: 13

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Big Shot (Selected by my wife, Angela).

Recently, while rummaging through a box of keepsake clothes, I found the T-shirt I wore in the Jack Miner School choir and band -- I was a Miner Music Maker from 1975-78.

After getting over the initial shock of how impossibly small I used to be, I reflected back on those days. Our music teacher, was an effervescent woman in her late-twenties/early-thirties. She loved to introduce us to new music and, when it was within our ability, we sang and played selections she shared.

Jack Miner Public School - Kingsville, Ontario

As one of the band's two saxophone player, my favourite songs to play were Fidgets by Jerry Williams and Gonna Fly Now (The theme from the motion picture Rocky), although the trumpets got to do the heavy lifting on that one. It was a time when I was learning to understand that I was participating in a collective. I only tended to like songs where I got to carry the melody.

In choir, we sang a lot of early-seventies folk rock, including If I Could Read Your Mind by Gordon Lightfoot, and Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce. However, it was during music appreciation periods that the teacher played the jazz-influence pop songs of the day, including Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione, and Just The Way You Are from Billy Joel's 1977 Grammy award-winning record, The Stranger -- #70 on The 500.

Just The Way You Are - Single from Billy Joel (1977)

I was hooked on Joel's sound, but, more importantly, I knew this music would pass the "mom-test". I had tried, and failed, to get permission to buy several records that my friends were collecting, including:

• Alive by KISS (#159 on The 500) & Alive II, 
• Double Live Gonzo by Ted Nugent,
• Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf (#343 on The 500), 

In 1978, I had convinced my parents that the family stereo would be better used in my bedroom. I had "cherry-picked" the best records from their inventory and I was slowly starting to add to my collection. I was a fan of live albums, compilations and soundtracks because they were usually double records and better value for my babysitting dollar. I was tempted to purchase 52 Street, but opted for the soundtrack to FM: The Motion Picture (even though I hadn't seen the movie). It contained all of the most popular artists of the day -- Boston, Bob Segar, Foreigner, Queen and, of course, Billy Joel. I suppose, in retrospect, it was a seventies version of a Spotify playlist of contemporary music. With one purchase, I had some cache and was in the music conversation with my friends.

52 Street is the sixth studio release by singer/songwriter Joel. The title is a reference to 52 Street in Midtown, Manhattan, New York. Sometimes dubbed "Swing Street", it is considered by many to be the jazz epicenter of the fifties and sixties. It is also the location of A&R Studios where the record was recorded, a block from the CBS Building where Joel's record label was located.

52 Street was the second of many Joel records to top the charts. It spawned four Top 40 singles and won the Grammy for Album Of The Year. 

Billy Joel accepting the Grammy Award for Album of the Year (1980)

Despite being such a prolific talent, Joel stopped writing original music in 1993, which is a shame. Notwithstanding his early retirement from writing, he is still #6 on the list of best-selling artists of all time, having moved over 85 million units. 

In 2018, my wife surprised me with a trip to New York City which included tickets to see Joel play at Madison Square Gardens. Joel plays "The Garden" monthly, and has sold it out more than 100 times. In fact, the show we attended was his 101st. sell out. 

My wife, outside MSG in 2018

The show was spectacular and Joel and his band (including Mike Delguidice who also tours with Big Shot - A Billy Joel Tribute Act) were wildly entertaining.

Forty three years after hearing him in my music class, I remain a Billy Joel fan. That music teacher, whose name now escapes me, would be in her early seventies. I hope she knows her efforts at music appreciation were not lost on me.